


From Natalie to Nathan

by TUNiU



Series: fN2N [1]
Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Trans, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Trans Character, Transgender, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 05:00:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18308690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TUNiU/pseuds/TUNiU
Summary: In Uncharted 3, when Marlowe said Nathan Drake wasn't his real name, it wasn't just the Drake identity she was talking about. What if Nathan wasn't always a Nathan.This is a very rough cut of an idea that has been growing in my brain for ages. Unbeta-ed. Unedited.





	From Natalie to Nathan

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I'm going to get hate for this, so I turned off anon commenting. I've never written a trans!headcanon before. I hope I did well. Cross-posted to tumblr.

It's in the orphanage that Natalie realizes she's wrong. Their mother didn't care when Natalie rough-housed with Sam, or when she wore Sam's clothes instead of her own. But the nuns in the orphanage discipline her for being unladylike. She gets into fights with boys twice her size when they pull her hair. When the nuns discipline her for standing up for herself, Natalie steals a pair of scissors and cuts off her hair. Samuel never has an issue with Natalie, when she tells him she thinks God built her wrong. She's a boy, like her brother. Samuel can't even conceive of it being a problem.

"Okay, then. You're my brother."

"What just like that?" Natalie asks.

"Just like that."

But Samuel is kicked out of the orphanage soon after, and he is the only one to accept her. The children mock her, the nuns discipline her. Every day she gets more terrified of her own body and the changes she can expect in puberty. Then Samuel comes back with a motorcycle and a job. They take back their mother's journal. Before the old woman dies, she's calls them "Cassandra's sons", because with Natalie's short hair and wearing Samuel's too big jacket, no one could tell she was a girl. The police shout out a look-out for two young men.

In that moment, Samuel reinvents them. They're Sam and Nathan Drake. Everything is going good. They never stay in town too long. It’s easier for Sam to steal one type of clothes, so Nate just wears his brother's hand me downs. They travel around the country, two boys, with smiles a mile wide and redirection skills that will steal a wallet from under a policemans' nose.

They make their way to Cartagena following their mother's notes on Henry Avery and Francis Drake.

Sam's always going a step too far with their cons, but he always has Nate's back, until it lands him in jail. The last thing Sam tells Nate before the police arrive, is to never let anyone know. Because the streets may be rough for a young man alone, but they're even worse for a young woman alone. And while Sam may call him Nate and think of him as a brother, the world is not so kind. There are bad men out there.

"Stay safe Nate, till I get out."

So Nate wanders the streets of Cartagena alone, with his short hair and his brother's clothes and an attitude to scare anyone who tries to mess with him. Until he meets Victor Sullivan.

Nate has never introduced himself to a stranger without Sam's presence. Oh Victor will kill a man to protect a kid, yeah, fine. So he has one shred of decency in this messed up world. It doesn't mean Nate will ever trust this man with his secret.

It takes weeks and months of cohabiting, of getting separate hotel rooms and wedging chairs under door knobs and sleeping in his clothes, before Nate believes that all Victor wants is a protégé. He's just a bad old con man, but he's not a 'bad man'. But still Nate never tells him. He gets lucky. He never really develops a chest like some women he's seen. Like the woman he knows he is under the clothes and the lies.

Funds run a little low once or twice. The jobs fall through. No one's fault, but they can't afford two rooms at the moment. Nate takes the bed by the door, changes in the bathroom. He wakes in the night to use the toilet, must have been some bad food. There's blood in his underwear.

Victor has always been a light sleeper. Nate moving wakes him up, he sees the blood on the bed. Victor is starting to love this kid. He's falling down the wrong side of 40 years old, never thought he would have a child. Never wanted one. Then he met Nate. He knows immediately, raising this kid is the best thing he'll ever do in his life. And now there's blood in his kid's bed, right in the middle of the sheets. There were no visible cuts on him. The job went south, no one's fault, but they were separated for a long while, with bad men chasing after them. Very bad men. There was time enough for...things.

He doesn't even stop to think, just starts banging on the bathroom door. Begging Nate to be okay. Just let him fix it. Let him kill whoever dared touch his boy. He'll burn the whole city down if he has to. Please Nate.

Nate has to open the door. Oh, he can beg Victor to leave him alone, but that's never going to happen. So Nate opens the door, shame faced, absolutely mortified and terrified out of his mind. He has a giant wad of toilet paper stuffed in his trunks, but he can still feel himself...leaking.

Victor tells him that they can go to a doctor he knows, very discrete. Get tests done, in case of...diseases. There's no drama of errors. Nate just whispers, so small, like the girl he grew out of when an old woman died in front of his eyes.

"I'm a woman."

It takes Victor another minute to change gears from murdering a whole city in revenge to helping a traumatized child. But there's no room for sexism in his business and some cons take a long time in close quarters with mixed company. He knows what Nate needs. Victor steals supplies from shops and books from libraries and helps Nate navigate female puberty. He never once calls Nate a girl. Habit by now, but Nate is just not a girl to him. He's Nate. He will always be Nate.

When Sam finally gets out of jail, Nate has grown four inches, and has to wear a running bra to keep his barely-there chest flat. He smokes a few cigarettes a day to make his voice raspy. He wears a giant belt buckle as a sign post to organs he doesn't have, and walks like he's taking up twice as much room. Sam doesn't recognize him. When he walks out of the jail, there's a beat up old Cadillac with primer on the fender and two men leaning against the side.

The younger man saunters up to him, gives him a macho handshake hug. It takes him a moment, but Sam sees their mother in his eyes. It's Nate. Nate introduces Sully, because Victor is Sully now, the man has proved himself to be a good man.

Sam nearly has a heart attack when he sees Nate change shirts in front of Victor. They're at the end of a con, nothing very complicated, just needed some funds. It's the old 'bad man (Nate) robs the old guy (Victor), and while the bystanders help old guy, passerby (Sam) steals their wallets,' type deal. Nate's escape route involved some mud. They're in the hotel room, a duffel bag each for all their possessions. Victor's counting the cash and Sam's lighting a cigarette when Nate whips off his muddy shirt, tosses it in the trash and digs around in his bag for a clean one.

Nate's wearing a bra. In front of Victor. Sam chokes on his cigarette smoke. The argument that Sam starts lasts hours and covers such topics as Victor's trustworthiness, bad men, periods, a brother's duty, jail sentences, weaknesses, and vulnerability. No one's feelings are spared.

Sam never quite fits into their dynamic. Sully was able to help Nate during his most desperate time, and Sam didn't. It was Sam's job to help his little brother, and he was stuck in jail. The resentment Sam has for Sully never really fades until Sam sees Nate and Elena riding off in a cab after finding Libertalia and Henry Avery's gold. Seeing Nate walk off with a family of his own makes Sam realize Victor did a good job raising Nate. His little brother has the best of both worlds, he got to be an adventurer and have a family life. If Sam had raised Nate by himself, he doubts it would have turned out so well.

 


End file.
